Building Acoustics
Saint-Étienne, AURA

In Saint-Étienne, most projects involve reclaiming an ageing building stock inherited from the city's mining and industrial history, often run-down, whose conversion into housing requires entirely rebuilding compliant separating walls and floors. The Gier and Ondaine valleys also concentrate productive activities in direct contact with housing, a configuration that calls for noise treatment at the property boundary. The city's cultural facilities, particularly those linked to design and creation, in turn demand a standard of reverberation and intelligibility specific to performance venues.

In Saint-Étienne, urban density, the widespread use of outdoor heat pumps and neighbourhood noise nuisance make the acoustic study decisive: from the design stage, to size the sound insulation and avoid disputes at handover, then at acceptance, to certify NRA compliance and regulatory noise emergence.